Sick Week 2022's first day of racing brought a lot of promise. Tom Bailey basically put himself and his "Sick Seconds 2.0" Camaro up as the bounty for racers to chase. He made no effort to hide the fact that he was intent on not only winning his own event, but that he was going for five-second passes at every track on the trip. Following up behind him in hot pursuit were no less than fourteen six-second-capable machines that were all gunning for that top spot. Everything from a Ford that looked more Fuel Altered than anything else to a Volvo station wagon built using the "How To Go Fast With An LS Engine" recipe book perfectly were in the wings, waiting for their chance to put a number up on the board. With the surface at Bradenton Motorsports park ready to go, cars lined up and in short order, what can usually happen at one of these events did.

The most notable incident of the day came from the PFI Speed camp. Jaime Lankford's Honda Civic rolled into the water box and spooled up to start the burnout...and proceeded to split the four-cylinder's block clean in half when the wastegate failed and the Honda B-motor lost the battle against over 80 PSI of pressure. As the team studied the damage, it became clear that there was no way to put the Civic back together in time to make a pass for Day 1. They will rebuild and return for the rest of the event.

Derek Bieri's "Independence" Chevelle came out swinging, posting a 10.98 at 120 MPH blast, and his recently completed 1974 Monte Carlo stock car tribute, complete with 400ci small-block and supercharger, clipped into the low 15-second range. Yeah, that's not fast, but compared to the Monte's factory-stock quarter mile time of something like 19 seconds, that's a solid improvement, and there has to be more waiting in the wings. James Rowlett's 1995 Ford Mustang, known as "Roxanne", is in the 8.50s.

Unfortunately, Mother Nature decided to intervene with a lovely bit of rain, and as a result Day 2 racing at Orlando Speedworld had to be cancelled. The next scheduled race day is February 9, 2022 at Gainesville Raceway.